For many gamers Hogwarts Legacy arrives under a substantial cloud. On paper, it’s the dream game for Harry Potter fans, letting you experience Hogwarts for yourself and carve out your own magical adventure within its walls, across its expansive grounds, and out into the wider Wizarding World. It’s gotten great reviews, and having played it we agree with the praise.
Hanging over it is the shadow of J.K. Rowling’s transphobia, which has understandably led many to refuse to play the game as it’s putting money in her pocket. However, the game itself is clearly eager to move beyond that.
The very first thing you’ll do is create your own Hogwarts student using the character creator, which is refreshingly permissive about mixing and matching gender options and customizing your look. Here’s a guide to what’s on offer.
Body types
First up you’ll choose from 30 basic templates, with almost every gamer around the world able to create a character that looks like them. Avalanche Software has clearly taken the time to make sure each default template looks good, likely knowing that many casual gamers will quickly flick through these options to get the game started.
It should be noted that the way your character looks will not affect the game’s plot, so though the game is set in the late 1800s, don’t expect any character in the game to comment on your ethnicity. In Hogwarts Legacy, you cannot customize these body types, so there are no sliders to set your character’s weight, how muscular they are, or their height.
Facewear
Once you’ve chosen your basic template, you move onto “Facewear,” and there are 15 variations on individual faces for each body type. Some are minor tweaks to the default model, but some can be wildly different in appearance. Sadly there are no granular sliders to customize facial features like nose size, eye shape, or mouth size (which unfortunately means you can’t make an inhuman monster student), though with 15 to choose from, you should find one you like.
After this, you have 20 variations of skin color to choose from which aren’t tied to the original body type. Once you’ve done that, you can choose whether your character will wear glasses or not. One of the choices is suspiciously Harry Potter-style rounded glasses (though from our fiddling, it’s difficult to make a Daniel Radcliffe lookalike). Other than that, you have squared frames or reading glasses to choose from. It’s worth mentioning that you can unlock new eyewear while playing the game, so don’t feel like you’re tied to these spectacles.
As you’re playing a teenager, there are no facial hair options, so abandon your dreams of strolling through Hogwarts with a handlebar mustache. There are also no makeup options, though as this is set in a Victorian boarding school it perhaps makes sense that you can’t look like you’re strolling down the runway.
Hairstyles
You have 50 distinct hairstyles to choose from here, and it should be noted that these are not locked behind your character’s external gender presentation. Want to create a beefy guy with flowing glossy locks and killer bangs? A petite girl with a shaved head? Go for it.
Hairstyles run the gamut of styles, including a wide variety of Afro-textured hair, which is always nice to see represented in games (so often the only choice here is a cartoonishly large afro).
You can further customize the hair with 32 different colors. These cover every natural hairstyle as well as more unusual colors like pink and green. Sure, it’s perhaps unusual for a late-Victorian character to have bright pink hair, but given that this is set in a magical world it just about flies.
Complexion
Next up is “Complexion.” This lets you pick from 10 looks for your face. These are fairly subtle changes, though if you’re planning to go full Dark Wizard, the one with a sallow complexion and big bags under your eyes is a good fit. You can then pick from 10 styles of “Freckles and Moles,” though you can’t place moles where you see fit.
The Wizarding World is not without its perils, and you can reflect your characters (imagined) past by giving them some cool scars. Many of these look like a monster has clawed your face, or perhaps that you’ve been attacked with a spell. Some of these are so subtle they’re barely visible, but it’s nice to have the option. Unfortunately, you can’t give yourself the trademark Potter lightning scar on your forehead, so no cosplaying as Harry.
Eyebrows
You have 25 different eye colors to choose from, covering just about all-natural shades (and some more striking ones). Then it’s onto eyebrows, where you have 20 different options and 32 colors to choose from. Most of these look very similar to one another, though we’ll give a shout-out to the unibrow option if you want to go with a caveman vibe.
Voice, name, and dormitory
In another nod to Hogwarts Legacy trying its best to move past the Rowling transphobia thing, the two character voices aren’t “male” and “female,” but simply “Voice One” (masculine sounding) and “Voice Two” (feminine sounding). You can then choose between five pitches, which sound quite nicely modulated. Even at the higher and lower ends of the spectrum, they sound quite natural.
After this, you choose the difficulty (Story, Easy, Normal, or Hard) and then come up with a character name. There are no preset options, so try to get creative with it. If you’re really stuck, why not try Bloomsbury Publishing’s official Harry Potter name generator, which will Potterize any name you enter.
Finally, there’s the intriguing option to choose your “Dormitory,” and whether you identify as a “Witch” or “Wizard.” Once again, this isn’t tied to your character’s perceived gender, so if you want to be a burly masculine-presenting witch or vice versa then go ahead. This also governs which bedroom your character uses each night (we can’t help but wonder what Rowling might think about this).
Start your adventure
Now you’re ready to go. It’s worth mentioning that once you exit the character creator, your face and body type is locked in for the game, though you can visit the barber in Hogsmeade (accessible early in the game) and change your hair color and style whenever you wish. Given the magical possibilities of the world (um, polyjuice potion?) it’s a little disappointing that you can’t remix your face if you decide you want to switch things up, but perhaps this will be added in a patch further down the line.
Hogwarts Legacy is released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC on Feb. 10, with PS4 and Xbox One releases on April 4, and the Nintendo Switch on July 25.